Now, you can complain about outages literally in the dead of night - thanks to Haryana power utilities' decision to recruit customer care staff for the graveyard shift.

Now, you can complain about outages literally in the dead of night - thanks to Haryana power utilities' decision to recruit customer care staff for the graveyard shift.

This was disclosed by Haryana Power Distribution Utilities' chairman-cum-managing director Devender Singh in a meeting held at Rewari on Thursday.

The meeting was attended by over two dozen public representatives and senior officials of Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN).

Singh said that customer satisfaction was the top priority of the distribution utilities. "For that, prompt redressal of grievances is necessary," he said.

He asked the officers to ensure regular power supply to both rural and urban areas. He said the utilities have increased power supply for rural domestic sector to 11 hours from 10 hours.

Reacting to the demand of augmentation of power transmission system for industries in Bawal, he said that all the work which has already been approved would be completed within the minimum possible time.

He said that theft of electricity, non-payment of bills and unauthorised extension of load were the major problems creating hurdles in reforming the service.

He said public representatives should come forward and persuade people to become more disciplined regarding electricity usage.

He said that power utilities have launched "voluntary disclosure schemes through which any resident can get his/her unauthorised extension regularised without paying any penalty".

While addressing DHBVN officials, Singh said the utilities need to enhance efficiency and strive towards excellence.

He said there was ample potential to reduce the aggregate technical and commercial losses, through which considerable savings could be made.

More interactionIn order to have better interaction with consumers and for timely redressal of their complaints, top engineers of the power discom will visit their areas on a regular basis.

Devender Singh has instructed directors and chief engineers to visit two villages in at least two sub-divisions every month.

Superintending engineers, executive engineers, sub divisional officers and junior engineers of the discom will visit villages, interact with local residents and redress their grievances on the spot.

They will also maintain a record of pending complaints for subsequent redressal.

The discom has also directed superintending engineers to prepare comprehensive loss reduction plans for implementation in their operation circles.

Further, sub divisional officers will constitute two special teams for carrying out preventive maintenance of the local distribution system. Each team will ensure maintenance of five transformers every week.